Legislators hoped to fix long wait times for a driver’s license in KY. Did they?
Changes to the way Kentuckians get licensed to be on the road are coming this summer — just not in the way some legislators may have hoped.
The Kentucky General Assembly and Transportation Cabinet spent much of the winter and spring months finding solutions to long lines and wait times at the state’s regional driver’s licensing offices. While legislators wanted to return licensing services back to local leaders this session, the executive branch has been moving full steam ahead without them.
Delays at regional offices were exacerbated last year following policies that lowered the minimum age to obtain an instructional permit, required in-person vision screening and the approaching deadline to comply with REAL ID enforcement.
In this year’s transportation budget, House Bill 501, legislators agreed to fund three new regional driver’s licensing offices in Bullitt, Oldham and Barren counties. Precise locations and opening timelines for the new offices are not part of the bill, but nearly $37 million has been set aside to support them.
And legislators also made an attempt this session to give more local control over licensing.
Senate Bill 7 would have created an opt-in process for county officials in places without a regional office to provide some of the same services. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Aaron Reed, R-Shelbyville, was identified as a priority by the chamber’s leadership.
It was fast-tracked in mid-January by Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, who chairs the Senate Standing Committee on Transportation. Though it passed nearly unanimously in the Senate, the policy was never assigned a House committee.
Some legislators took issue with the bill’s proposed $25 fee for anyone seeking to renew or duplicate their license at a local office. And early during session, just after SB 7 was introduced, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear worried it would change a system he said he’s working to improve.
“My concern about changing the system is everybody else is going to have to start from scratch now and go through possibly six years of the learning curve,” he said Jan. 15. “Now, one way that could help is that some of the vision screening could be done locally because that’s what’s driving people in now. ... So, happy to work with legislators on it, but I want to make sure that we don’t just scrap a system that we worked six years to build.”
Language from Senate Bill 7 was added as a committee substitute before concurrence to House Bill 658, a bill that would have extended driving hours for those with commercial driver’s licenses. The House bill passed the Senate unanimously, but on the final day of session was sent back to committee by the House. HB 658 did not receive final passage.
Reed did not immediately respond to the Herald-Leader’s request for comment Friday morning.
In a post to social media April 6, Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, said lack of movement to return licensing to localities “stems from the belief that the bottleneck was temporary and that the regional office model is now working since the REAL ID deadline has elapsed.”
The representative sponsored House Bill 162 that would have given circuit court clerks the ability to issue and renew REAL IDs. It never received a committee hearing.
The executive branch and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is also taking action to improve the state’s driver’s licensing processes. It launched a new line management and text check-in system and hired more staff in an effort to reduce average walk-in times.
Beshear said April 15 the state will launch a new computer system this summer to modernize the state’s driver’s licensing system and improve customer service. An online portal through the new system will allow Kentuckians access to see their driving record, reapply for permits and IDs, make renewal requests and upload documents to make necessary in-person visits shorter.
The system upgrade will require all driver’s licensing regional offices to close June 4 and June 5. Offices will reopen June 8 with walk-in hours between 8 a.m. and noon through June 18. Saturday hours will not be held in June, but there will be two Saturday openings next month: May 9 and May 30.
Beshear said Saturday hours will resume in July after the system upgrade.
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